First Texas republicans want to outlaw teaching critical thinking, now Kentucky republicans want special rights to have their dumbed down teaching of the "theory" of evolution not held against them in the ACT.
"Kentucky's Senate Republicans pushed successfully in 2009 to tie the state's testing program to national education standards, but three years later, they're questioning the results."
Makes you wonder why they wanted that in the first place. Maybe it would be cheaper and they could cut more taxes for the filthy rich? Anyway, the national standards actually ask professors what will help prepare students for college. Turns out, creationism is not that helpful in preparing for university science classes and now the gop in ky is stomping their feet.
“I think we are very committed to being able to take Kentucky students and put them on a report card beside students across the nation,” said Republican Sen. David Givens. “We’re simply saying to the ACT people we don’t want what is a theory to be taught as a fact in such a way it may damage students’ ability to do critical thinking.” (emphasis mine)
Wonkette put it nicely, "Let’s teach students about how Chuck E. Cheese made the Earth out of popsicle sticks three years ago. We don’t want to damage them." Because when stacking up the science of creationism against evolution, the difference is only a matter of degree.
No, I am not making this up. These are grown men somehow elected to office by masses of drooling morons, who want to ensure any of their constituents that can go to college are just as ignorant as they are.
“The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science — Darwin made it up,” [Rep. Ben] Waide said. “My objection is they should ensure whatever scientific material is being put forth as a standard should at least stand up to scientific method. Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny.”
How many times will those of us in the reality-based community have to say "No, you are wrong" and "why do you insist on making a fool of yourself?" Please, knuckle-dragging "Christians" across the republic, GO AWAY. The fundamental problem is the term "theory" like "trend" is misunderstood. People think a "trend" is something that shows up, makes a splash and then goes away; like the pet rock or bell-bottoms. This is actually a fad. A trend is long-term tendencies in a group of variables; like the growth of inequality in America correlating with the growth of prisoners.
Matthew Chatterton nailed the problem that these mouth-breathing superstitious morons have:
"The most common argument I hear from creationists is 'Evolution is still a theory!' The source of that argument is a simple misunderstanding of scientific terminology.
There is the colloquial definition of the word “theory” and, then, there is the scientific definition. In everyday-speech, people use the colloquial definition to mean "idea", "conjecture", "hypothesis", "guess", or "assumption".
Fact of the matter is, the scientific definition is none of the above. In a scientific context, the word “theory” means, “An explanation of a natural phenomenon, strongly supported by evidence.'” (again, emphasis mine)
Of course, this distinction will need to be pointed out again and again. The term they are thinking of is hypothesis, and yes evolution was an hypothesis 150 years ago. All scientific theories start as hypotheses. Enough testing and they become theories. But the question must be asked, why do closed-minded state legislators hate the students so much that they are all but ensuring that the rest of the world passes us by? If I were a student about to go to college in Kentucky, I might make a fuss about this. They can't all be brainwashed as badly as their parents right?
No comments:
Post a Comment